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Thursday, August 7, 2008

If you know what this book is about and scroll down to my previous comments on The Church of the Dead Girls you are very likely thinking "this is weird reading material for a new mother". And you'd be rite, both were hard for me to read but I've always liked mysteries, thrillers, and horror and both books are very good.

The Lovely Bones is about a 14 year old girl being raped and murdered and how the lives of the people around her continue. She narrates it from heaven following the fates of her family, friends, even her murderer.

The literary world were surprised that the book became a best seller not understanding why it resonated with people. I don't understand why they were surprised. Every one experiences loss at some point in their life and most people fear death. We identify with the narrator (Susie) because we know we don't want to die. We identify with the living because we've lost loved ones.

I've been the sister left behind after the sudden tragic death of a sibling. Susie's sister was very real to me. The author depicted the process of grief very much the way I've experienced it. It's exhausting and continuous and you don't ever stop feeling it. It becomes absorbed into your daily life as something that is just there, intruding in to the immediacy of your existence less and less but never completely gone.

It's a very good book and I highly recommend it but be prepared to have your emotions churned.

I think I need a good romance novel or something light next. This one wiped me out.